We reached Queenscliff around a 10am. We decided to skip Geelong to save 30 min drive, and we are satisfied with San Francisco and Sausalito pier. For this rushing trip, reach hotel earlier and early rest is important too.

We followed the driving instruction given by visitor center to look for cheaper fuel price. The advice, usually the first petrol station after jetty is the most expensive. Well, if you are running out of fuel, you have no choice. Just drive and follow the road sign board to Great Ocean Road, we found one reasonable fuel price 20 minutes later.

Finally, it starts here.

Along the way of Great Ocean Road, there are many town/stop with this information mark. Feel free to take your time to read. Unfortunately we do not read much :p I think one day tour of Great Ocean Road doesn't give much chance to know this bay deeper. In our day driving tour, we managed to reach Warrnambool around 7pm, or 8pm? I cannot remembered, *mm*.

Along the way, there are visitor information center and toilet as well. No worries ;)

At Apollo Bay visitor center, there is a map showing distance and estimated driving time of few spots. Before the trip, I surf on google map to get an estimated driving distance. For those who didn't, this is a very good reference.

I am not sure what is the best time to visit Great Ocean, morning, afternoon or evening? If you are planning to go, maybe surf a bit will be useful. In our trip, the weather was sunny in the morning, then cloudy with some showering rain in the afternoon and evening.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

It took less than 10 min from YHA Sorrento to Sorrento pier. We took ferry to Queenscliff to start our Great Ocean Road trip. It costs us AUD63 for a vehicle less than 5.5m with 2 passengers. Visit Queenscliff - Sorrento Searoad website for cost calculator.

We wait in front of the pier before they start sold the ticket. 5 min before the ferry depart, the ticket counter is opened. There are very less car in the morning in this low peak season.

We drove to the ticket counter and paid, then straight drive into the ferry to wait for departure. There are two sides, one contains 3 lanes. It was half full before the ferry depart.

The trip took around 40 minutes. We walked up to the cabin for sight seeing.

Look at the wave pattern caused by the ferry.

There is cafe and TV inside the ferry too. One newspaper is given free when we purchased the ticket, so we can do some reading during the trip.

After we arrived at Queesncliff, we went to the visitor center for information. Follow the yellow i sign and there is the visitor center.

The staff gave us some map, and also directions to the cheaper petrol station. Besides, if you are going to surf, you may find the tides information here as well. We were early and the information is still yesterday.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

SH's father use this pack below to put in his camera for underwater photo shooting. Some underwater photo in SH's blog :)

From picture above, can you see the far far away land? Those are Thailand island :) It took around half an hour to reach. For sure, need to follow some marine/immigration procedure :) There is Malaysia coast guide to follow.

At 3.15pm, we took Zon 2 to go back to Penang. On our way back, the wave is not as strong as the morning trip, thus I see no people vomit :)

For a non-swimmer like me, I would visit Pulau Payar for once, at least, for the live and sea life.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Jaf has a lot of story to tell, and I enjoyed his story. I am able to know more about Pulau Payar in that way. Different individual has different travel preference. When I visit a new place, I love to know how people there live, what is their culture, and try to live their lifestyle :)

If you love hiking, there is a short hiking trail of around 168 step. Since it was a rainy day, we are not advise to hike to avoid snake.

At the beach, there are lot of reef, with different shape and color.

Look at picture below, what do you see?

Does it looks like a human face covering his mouth using hand? :)

There are few resort building on this island. However, the resort never started its operation after government (or state government? ) want to preserve its nature and disallow overnight activities here. Jaf said these building were build based on resort in Jurassic Park movie. The yellow color is for royal family. However, sometimes government servant can come for short trip.

I just love the clear water, clean beach here :) If I have a day here, I can lie down at the beach and do nothing, beside enjoy the nature.

Look, mosses by the beach! I hope I can stay here and enjoy the fresh air!

Look at picture above, seashell. What else do you see? There is a fake seashell in there, can you spot it? ;) Hope no other pollutant beside this :p

Do you know what is this?

Can you see the crab? Thanks to JC pointed these sea creature to us on our way back to the jetty. Or else I would have missed it at high possibility :p

From this beach, we can see Alor Star tower at far away. Far far away tower. I have not include the picture here, it looks nothing in this small picture :p Show you full resolution photo one day and you can see it better ;)

At the day we visit, there are two other travel group, one local and one from China. Well, you can easily differentiate them using just your ears to detect the sound level :p This place is commonly for local tourist, it is not so famous for foreigner yet. Sometimes there will be cleaning underwater activities where foreigner will join and help :)

Saturday, December 25, 2010

After lunch, we took a small boat to the beach. No worries, no taxi fee is needed :p

There are three type of boat, some with shade and some doesn't. Choose either one, the journey to the beach is short, just a few minutes.

Look at the clear water.

Oh it is baby shark.

The information center is closed.

The tour guide Jaf show us how he catch the fish, for us to take closer shot.

We have to be quick to take the photo, Jaf will return the fish to where it belong to while the fish is still alive.

He later when to get some sea cucumber. This is not edible. The edible species came out only at night time. However, Pulau Payar is a protected island, no fish catching activities is allowed. Tourist is now allowed to overnight there as well, to protect the island.

The sea cucumber is soft. Can you see the water? :) Jaf keep the sea cucumber wet to keep them alive, before returning to the sea.

Did you notice Jaf left hand ring finger looks a little bit different? He was bitten by the shark once. He has a lot of stories to tell. According to him, if you wish to play with the shark, don't keep it more than 2 min, after that the shark will start attack you. Of course there are technique on how to 'play' with the shark :p If you get bitten by shark or moray, don't move, don't give any response. Usually their first bite is to test if the 'bitee' (is there such a word? :p) is alive. If they receive no response, they will let go and go away. Otherwise, here the attack.

More on the beach and other living species here tomorrow :) Have a good day.